Malaysian authorities have defended their handling of the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet as they revealed the search is now covering 27,000 square nautical miles.

Officials have admitted they were unsure which direction the plane was headed when it disappeared as the international search mission carries on in its fifth day.

The mystery over the plane's whereabouts has been confounded by confusing and occasionally conflicting statements by Malaysian officials, adding to the anguish of relatives of the 239 people on board the flight - two thirds of them Chinese.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein described the multinational search for the missing plane as an unprecedented and complicated effort and defended his country's efforts.

He said two areas, in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea, were being searched by a total of 43 ships and 39 planes.

The
latest information comes after Chinese relatives of the missing people
vented their frustration at Malaysian officials in Beijing, throwing
water bottles and shouting: 'Tell us the truth.'

Scroll down for videos

Malaysia's acting transport minister Hussein Hishammuddin (centre) has said the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight is now covering 27,000 square nautical miles

Malaysian acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, left, answers a question during a press conference at a hotel in Sepang, Malaysia

A bottle is thrown as angry relatives of missing Chinese passengers confront Malaysian airline and government officials at a meeting in Beijing which was supposed to answer their questions but which ended in rowdy scenes

A water bottle is thrown towards Malaysian officials from its embassy in Beijing and from Malaysian Airlines as they meet relatives of missing Chinese passengers. Flight MH370 had 153 Chinese passengers on board.

Police in Malaysia have said they had nine eyewitness reports of aircraft 'noise and lights' being seen in the north-east of the country, near the border with Thailand, after the plane's last recorded sighting on civilian radar systems

Air force chief Rodzali Daud said air defence radar showed an unidentified object at 2:15am about 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of Penang.

'I am not saying it's flight MH370. We are still corroborating this. It was an unidentifiable plot,' he said.

Military and government officials said American experts and the manufacturer of the radar systems were examining that data to confirm whether it showed the Boeing 777. Until then, they said the search would continue on both sides of the country.

The plane's sudden disappearance led to initial speculation of a catastrophic incident that caused its disintegration. The possibility now that it continued to fly without communicating with the ground would mean its electrical systems, including transponders which allow it to be identified by commercial radar, were either knocked out or turned off, voluntarily or otherwise.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, meanwhile, told reporters in Beijing: 'There's too much information and confusion right now. It is very hard for us to decide whether a given piece of information is accurate.

'We will not give it up as long as there's still a shred of hope.'

The country's transport minister Mr Hishammuddin said the search now involved 12 countries, including India and Japan.

He said: 'It's not something that is
easy. We are looking at so many vessels and aircraft, so many countries
to coordinate, and a vast area for us to search,' he said. 'But we will
never give up. This we owe to the families' of those on board.

Malaysia Airlines staff organise relatives of passengers onboard flight MH370 as they line up to receive a special condolence payment of 31,000 CNY (almost $5,000) at Lido Hotel, in Beijing

A charity worker comforts the relative of a passenger onboard the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

A man stands under an umbrella near an office building with lights forming the word MH370, the flight number of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, in Shanghai

Chinese relatives of the passengers onboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 gather inside the relative area at Lido Hotel in Beijing

Earlier, police in Malaysia disclosed that they had nine eyewitness reports of aircraft
'noise and lights' being seen in the north-east of the country, near
the border with Thailand, after the plane's last recorded sighting on
civilian radar systems.

The
new claims follow two earlier statements by a businessman and a
fisherman that they had seen an aircraft's lights low in the sky before
they disappeared.

Deputy
police commander Dak Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said the eyewitnesses had
reported that they saw an aircraft - possibly the missing jet - at about
the time all civilian tracking data was lost with flight
MH370 in the early hours of last Saturday.

The
reports, from several towns and villages in the north east, said the
aircraft was seen low over the sea.

The
towns included Kuala Besar,
Pentai Cahaya Bulan, Pentai Senok and Penarik, all of which are on the
coast of the South China Sea, which is south and west of where the plane
was last seen.

Airforce personnel during a search mission for the Malaysian Airlines aircraft on board of a military surveillance airplane over the Malacca Strait

Members of the Philippines Air Force Search and Rescue Group aboard a C-130 plane conducting an aerial search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight

The pilot of an Indonesian Air Force military surveillance aircraft over the Malacca Strait, a passageway between Indonesia and Malaysia

A member of Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency scans the horizon during a search operation for the missing flight

An officer aboard a Vietnamese military helicopter searches for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

'Based on the reports, the plane was sighted between 1.30am and 1.45am,' said commander Jalaluddin.

'A
bus driver, who gave his voluntary statement on Sunday, said he saw a
low-flying plane at Penarik at about 1.45am the same day flight MH370
went missing.

DID THE PILOT COMMIT SUICIDE?

Authorities are investigating the possibility that the pilot of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 committed suicide, the director of the CIA has revealed.

John Brennan (below), head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, said: 'I think you cannot discount any theory', when asked if it was possible the pilot deliberately crashed the Boeing 777.

The theory could offer an explanation as to how the plane 'disappeared' from civilian radar tracking its movements, as the pilot could have switched off the transponder shortly before it vanished.

The CIA chief’s intervention came as Malaysian police say they are carrying out psychological profiles of everyone on board the plane, which vanished on Saturday carrying 239 people after taking off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.

He told reporters there were a host of unanswered questions, including why the plane's transponder stopped emitting signals and what was the role of passengers carrying stolen passports.

'There are a number of very curious anomalies about all of this,’ he said.

‘You know, did it turn around? You know, were the individuals with these stolen passports in any way involved?'

He added: 'What about the transponder? Why did it sort of, you know, just disappear from the radar?

'We are looking at it very carefully. Clearly this is still a mystery.’

'The driver was sure that he saw the aircraft's blinking beacon lights.'

From
the Marang area, said the commander, eight villagers lodged police
reports claiming they had heard a loud noise on Saturday night coming
from the direction of Pulau Kapas.

One
of the villagers, Alias Salleh, 36, told The Star newspaper that he and
some friends were on a bench about 400m from the Marang beach at 1.20am
when they heard a loud and frightening noise which sounded like the fan
of a jet engine.

'The loud and frightening noise came from the north east of Pulau Kapas,' said Mr Alias.

'We looked around the Rhu Muda beach but did not see anything unusual.'

If the sightings are correct it would put the plane on course for the north of the Strait of Malacca, assuming it maintained a steady route.

That is where the main search and rescue operation is now concentrating on, according to Gen Daud.

Gen Daud said that the search now included waters around Penang Island, at the north of the Malacca Strait.

The plane turning back 'had not been ruled out', he said.

He denied he had said that there had been a definite sighting of it on military radar, but did not deny that there was a sighting - only that he had said it himself.

Meanwhile the country's civilian aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said today: 'There is a possibility of an air turn back. We are still investigating and looking at the radar readings.'

On a day of confusion, Vietnam briefly scaled back the search off the southern coast, saying it was receiving scanty and confusing information from Malaysia.

Hanoi later said the hunt - now in its fifth day - was back on in full force and was even extending on to land.

The confusion over where to look is adding to one of the most baffling mysteries in modern aviation mystery, and prolonging the agonising wait for hundreds of relatives of the missing.

In Beijing, there was fury from families of the 239 people on board, who are desperate for any news. Relatives hurled water bottles at airline officials and accused them of lying.

At least three people threw water
bottles at a meeting held between Malaysian airline and embassy
officials and relatives of some of the 153 Chinese passengers who were
on board.

At the meeting
in Beijing, people shouted 'tell us the truth' and asked exactly what
the Malaysian military knew about the missing plane.

When officials refused to discuss exactly what was known, bottles were thrown and some relatives lunged towards the Malaysians.

The massive search operation involving
ships and aircraft from 10 countries is spread out over the Gulf of
Thailand and the South China Sea, which lie between Malaysia and
Vietnam, and in the Strait of Malacca into the Andaman Sea.

Zaharie Ahmad Shah (left), a 53-year-old Malaysian, who was one of the pilots of the Malaysia Airlines plane that remains missing and Indonesian passenger Firman Siregar (right), pictured on his university graduation day

Stunt man Ju Kun, pictured on the back lot of the new Pinewood Studios in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, was among the passengers on the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared early Saturday

Indonesian Air Force crewmen of a Boeing 737 'Surveiller' maritime patrol aircraft of the 5th Air Squadron 'Black Mermaids' pray prior to a search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777

Chinese relatives of passengers onboard attend a conference with Malaysia Airlines on Tuesday

China's
civil aviation chief said its air force would add two planes to the
search effort, which would be broadened to include land areas. He did
not elaborate.

The Indian Express said India, which
controls the Andaman and Nicobar island chains and has a strong naval
presence in the Andaman Sea, had been asked to help, but a defence
ministry source said there had been no formal request from Malaysia.

IRANIAN LAWMAKER CLAIMS U.S. 'KIDNAPPED' FLIGHT MH370

An Iranian parliamentarian has blamed the disappearance of flight MH370 on the United States, claiming it 'kidnapped' the flight in an attempt to 'sabotage' relationships between Iran and China and South East Asia.

Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, the spokesman for the foreign policy committee, has claimed reports of two Iranian nationals travelling on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight on stolen passports was 'psychological warfare', The New York Times has reported.

He said: 'Americans recruit some people for such kinds of operations so they can throw the blame on other countries, especially Muslim countries.'

Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble said the recent information about the men made terrorism a less likely cause of the plane's disappearance. He said: 'The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it is not a terrorist incident.'

'They
have to tell us the area where our people have to go, only then they
move to that area,' the source said. 'It has to be clear, the clarity is
not there at the moment.'

Experts meanwhile have said search teams
are running out of time before the battery on the plane's underwater
locator beacon runs out.

Alan Lau Kin-tak, of Hong Kong Polytechnic
University’s mechanical engineering department, has told the South China
Morning Post: 'The battery life of the locator lasts 30 days. If they
cannot find it within this window, it will become very hard to locate.'

No signal was picked up either from the emergency locator transmitter, which ejects from a plane if it crashes and lasts for 24 hours.

In
the absence of any concrete evidence to explain the plane's
disappearance, authorities have not ruled out anything. Police have said
they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had
personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the
mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or
mechanical failure.

The airline said it was taking
seriously a report by a South African woman who said the co-pilot of the
missing plane had invited her and a female travelling companion to sit
in the cockpit during a flight two years ago, in an apparent breach of
security.

'Malaysia Airlines
has become aware of the allegations being made against First Officer
Fariq Ab Hamid which we take very seriously. We are shocked by these
allegations. We have not been able to confirm the validity of the
pictures and videos of the alleged incident,' the airline said in a
statement.

A well-known Malaysian malay bomoh (shaman), Ibrahim Mat Zin (centre) holds two coconuts as him and his assistants offer to help locate the missing Malaysia Airlines flight

The massive search operation involving ships and aircraft from 10 countries is spread out over the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, which lie between Malaysia and Vietnam, and in the Strait of Malacca into the Andaman Sea

The woman, Jonti Roos, said in an interview with Australia's Channel Nine TV that she and her friend were invited to fly in the cockpit by Fariq and the pilot between Phuket, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur in December 2011. The TV channel showed pictures of the four apparently in a plane's cockpit.

The Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records of any commercial aircraft in service. Its only previous fatal crash came on July 6 last year when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 struck a seawall on landing in San Francisco, killing three people.

U.S. planemaker Boeing has declined to comment beyond a brief statement saying it was monitoring the situation.

TIMELINE: THE SEARCH FOR THE MISSING MALAYSIA AIRLINES JET

SATURDAY, MARCH 8

- Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, departs at 12:21am, and is due to land in Beijing at 6:30am the same day.

- Airline loses contact with plane between 1-2 hours after takeoff. No distress signal and weather is clear at the time.

- Missing plane last has contact with air traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu.

- Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam says plane failed to check in as scheduled while flying over sea between Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh City.

Malaysian Airlines Group Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahyain, front, speaks during a press conference at a hotel in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur, on Saturday, March 8

- Flight tracking website flightaware.com shows plane flew northeast over Malaysia after takeoff and climbed to altitude of 35,000 feet. The flight vanished from website's tracking records a minute later while still climbing.

- Malaysia search ships see no sign of wreckage in area where flights last made contact. Vietnam says giant oil slick and column of smoke seen in its waters.

- Two men from Austria and Italy, listed among the passengers on flight, are not in fact on board. They say their passports were stolen.

SUNDAY, MARCH 9

- Malaysia Airlines says it fears the worst and is working with U.S. company that specialises in disaster recovery.

- Radar indicates flight may have turned back from its scheduled route to Beijing before disappearing.

A woman, surrounded by media, covers her mouth on her arrival at a hotel which is prepared for relatives or friends of passengers aboard the missing plane

- Interpol says at least two passports recorded as lost or stolen in its database were used by passengers, and it is 'examining additional suspect passports'.

- Investigators narrow focus of inquiries on possibility plane disintegrated in mid-flight, a source who is involved in the investigations in Malaysia tells Reuters.

MONDAY, MARCH 10

- The United States review of American spy satellite imagery shows no signs of mid-air explosion.

- As dozens of ships and aircraft from seven countries scour the seas around Malaysia and south of Vietnam, questions mount over whether a bomb or hijacking could have brought down the Boeing airliner.

- Hijacking could not be ruled out, says the head of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority, Azharuddin Abdul Rahmanthe

Dato' Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation, briefs the media over latest updates on missing Malaysia Airline MH370 on March 10

TUESDAY, MARCH 11

- Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble names the two men who boarded the jet with stolen passports as Iranians who had entered Malaysia using their real passports. 'The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it is not a terrorist incident,' Noble said.

- Malaysian police chief said the younger man appeared to be an illegal immigrant. His mother was waiting for him in Frankfurt and had been in contact with authorities, he said.

- Malaysian police say they are investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure.

- Malaysia's military believes missing jet turned and flew hundreds of kilometres to the west after it last made contact with civilian air traffic control off the country's east coast, a senior officer told Reuters. The jet made it into the Strait of Malacca, one of the world's busiest shipping channels, along Malaysia's west coast, said the officer.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12

- The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet expands to an area stretching from China to India, as authorities struggle to answer what had happened to the aircraft that vanished almost five days ago with 239 people on board.